You're close Mr. S but the Hillman Minx Californian was described by Octane magazine as "a 1953 Minx Drophead coupe with a permanent hardtop attached".The car in the photo is a 1953 Hillman Minx convertible (AKA "drophead coupe") but without the h/t it can't be a "Californian". link .

If we're going to get really pedantic it's a Hillman Minx Mark V or Phase V . Ireally should go for a PhD in Pedantry. Rootes Group nomenclature and badge-swapping would make an excellent thesis project. :sick:

The Californian hardtop wasn't removable - it was a pillarless two door saloon - like the later Sunbeam Rapier. also the Hillman Minx convertible preceded it by a few years - the first version of the Californian wasn't sold until 1953, whereas the convertible was on sale by about 1950/1.

"As a $19,999 option, B2K included new forged pistons and a secondary fuel injection system to keep the 382-horsepower turbo motor fed. That took the base C4 Corvette coupe from its $27,999 base price to $47,998.

That may look like a bargain price to 21st-century eyes, but the twin-turbo was notoriously fragile. Every element of the late-'80s Corvette was stressed by the additional output. So even though B2K was available through the 1991 model year, only about 500 were ordered."

Therein lies the problem with so many Corvette specials; they visually indistinguishable from the standard issue 'Vettes. The product planners seem to finally be aware of this. The C6 ZR-1 had extra vents and such, subtle but at least something to distinguish it from the regular C6 although it doesn't look much different than the Z06.

Do you ever see any 80s cars (other than the Grand National, Ferrari, Lambos etc) ever being collectible? Many of the old barges had the last of their runs, the 86 Taurus, etc? I'm talking 25-30 years from now.

Not many 80s car, no. People keep saying "oh, one day Car X or Car Y will be a collector car" but let's face facts here---if a car hasn't made its move toward collectibility by 25-30 years, it's probably not going to happen.

There have been a few (very few) "sleepers" that took 40 or more years to wake up (e.g., the Tucker) but these were very VERY rare low production cars of extremely unique design and interest.

So if you can think of a very low production car (not a trim-only variant of a high production car) of unique performance, styling, etc. from the 1980s, then yeah, that car might have a shot.